Prep Baseball: Byron throws Winnebago a curve in BNC West

Lowe, who leaned on his slow curve, looked at it more as being practical after striking out 12 in six innings of Byron’s 8-2 Big Northern West baseball victory over Winnebago.

“He used his curveball more than usual,” Bielskis said. “The wind had some effects. He was playing around with it a little.

“I like the fastball, I really do, and he brings it when he wants to, but tonight he got a little more fancy than he usually does.”

Lowe, who walked one, is also a fastball fan.

“I like throwing 0-2 high heat better, but I’d take either-or. A strikeout is a strikeout,” Lowe said. “And the wind was pushing the curveball down and helping out.”

Byron (24-4, 8-1) has won at least 20 games in 15 of the past 21 seasons, but only its 1995 state runner-up team (26-7) has won more games than this year’s team.

“I’m just not satisfied,” Bielskis said. “We don’t feel we have played a full game yet.”

“He’s always looking for extra out of us and no innings off,” shortstop Tyler Nunez (2-for-4, 3 RBIs) said.

Lowe was also helped by three standout defensive plays: a back-hand stab of a one-hopper down the line by third baseman Tyler Rowland, a pirouette behind second by a wide-ranging Nunez, and first baseman Nate Peterson’s game-ending grab of a high and off-target throw to strand two Winnebago runners in scoring position.

Chas Lingel (4-for-4, two RBIs) led Winnebago (9-6, 3-3). Byron scored five unearned runs after a two-out throwing error in the third and Lowe stranded six runners in the fourth and fifth innings, getting all six outs with strikeouts, and Evan Mack lined out to right to strand two runners in the sixth.

“We’re playing solid. We’ve been competitive in all of our games,” Winnebago coach Ron Adams said. “But Byron has an exceptional group this year. You find out a lot about yourself in games against Byron. We’re learning. We’re getting better.”

And Byron isn’t satisfied.

“Coach preaches to never coast and keep getting runs. We kept putting more pressure on them,” said Rowland, who homered in the fifth.

It’s easy to not coast when Lowe is leading on the mound.

“I have never seen someone more competitive and wanting to strike out more kids than Dan,” Nunez said. “It’s an attitude and an edge he has over maybe anyone else in the conference. I love watching him pitch and playing behind him.”